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 lokācāryāya gurave kṛṣṇapādasya sūnave |

saṁsāra-bhogi-saṁdaṣṭa-jīva-jīvātave namaḥ ||

Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar tirunakṣatram- Oct 21, 2015

It was a golden age in Bhūlokavaikuṇṭam, when Êmpêrumāňār Daricaňam was marching ahead beyond Svāmi’s own victories with Śrībhāṣyam and Gītābhāṣyam. On one front, Svāmi Nampiḻḻai’s Bhagavad Viṣaya pravacanams were being digested and documented as 36000paḍi by Svāmi Vaḍakkuttiruvīdippiḻḻai; on another front, Svāmi Pêriyavāccāňpiḻḻai had authored vyākhyānams to the entire Aruḻiccêyal corpus, in addition to other key commentaries including the one for important verses of Śrīrāmāyaṇam; and on yet another front, Āļvār-Ācārya vaibhavams, their vacanams, anubhavams, ācaraṇams and upadeśams were gloriously captured in detail by Śvāmi Pinbaļagarām Pêrumāḻ Jīyar in his  6000paḍi and Vārtāmālai granthams. In this setting, as a fitting receptacle to the confluence of all of this divine knowledge, appeared Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar. On the day of Pôigai Āļvār’s tirunakṣatram in the year 1205 CE, Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar was born to Svāmi Vaḍakkuttiruvīdippiḻḻai out of Svāmi Nampiḻḻai’s grace and as an amśam of Kāñcī Devappêrumāḻ Himself. Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar led a blessed life of a naiṣṭhika-brahmacāri-vedāntin devoting undivided attention to the core message of our Vedic sampradāyam – the Rahasyatrayam. As is well-known, Svāmī wrote 18 granthams on this topic catering to the various aspects of understanding the rahasyārthams and to the various adhikārins that yearn to understand. One might attempt to sense the greatness and importance of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s rahasya works by reflecting on the fact that these have outshone the rahasya works of even the towering ācārya, Svāmi Pêriyavāccāňpiḻḻai!

Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ points out that the greatest among Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s 18 works is Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam – the sāratama (ie., of undiluted essence) anuṣṭāna-grantham instructing how exactly a Śrīvaiṣṇava should think and act. Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ also says that after a rigorous Śāstraic analysis the jewels of Pūrvācārya-Vacanams were embedded in the golden words of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar to make the ornament of Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam that decorates one’s ātman. The work was authored to instruct as wells as establish with strong defense the highly refined Veda-Matam and Vaidika-Anuṣṭānam of our Pūrvācāryars. As opposed to verse or running prose, the grantham adopts the sūtra style of traditional mīmāmsā, vouching for and standing by every syllable and word spoken, and supporting it with pramāṇam. The seven pāsurams of Upadecarattiňamālai put the importance of this grantham in perspective by placing it right at the very top and as the very end of all Śrīvaiṣṇava granthams.

It is primarily for giving us Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam that the taniyan above hails Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar as the jīvātu (life-giving medicine) to jīvātmans bit by the saṁsāra-serpent. Without Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam, the teachings and practices of our Pūrvācāryars that challenged commonly-held misbeliefs would not have been brought over and established to posterity as strictly Vedic. Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s kaiṁkaryam in the form of authoring Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam is held on par with his other kaiṁkaryam of immeasurable greatness – giving his life to protect Nampêrumāḻ Himself from the Turuṣka marauders.

Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ declares that it is near impossible to find a person that fully comprehends the deep meanings of Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam, internalize them, and then bring them to the level of anuṣṭānam. Just like how Ādiśeṣan had to come down as Svāmi Rāmānujar to bring out the vedāntārthams captured in the Brahmasūtrams, Svāmi Rāmānujar had to be reborn as Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ to bring out the hard-to-intuit arthams of Drāviḍavedāntam captured in Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇa sūtrams. Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ’s vyākhyānam is universally revered for its lucidity and precision, without which, ācāryas say, the profound meanings of this all-important work of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar would never have been understood.